GB team 'can hit medal target'

UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee insists his squad can hit his ambitious target of eight medals at this summer’s Olympic Games.

Four years ago in Beijing Britain won only four in athletics.

But with 100 days to go until the opening ceremony in London, Van Commenee believes that can be doubled.

“The statistics and the results over the last three years indicate that we should be able to be there or thereabouts,” he told BBC Sport:

“99% of the work is done. We have to do much better than in the previous Olympics.

“It’s been difficult at times, having hard conversations and decisions to make. The effort has left me feeling 12 years older, but at the same time it feels as though my first championships – which were the European Indoors in Turin – were last week.

Van Commenee is that 21st century sporting curio, a head coach who doesn’t actually coach any athletes. So what exactly does he do with his time?

Porter was born in Michigan but has an English mother and has held British citizenship since birth. Aldama, who won gold in Turkey, has previously represented Cuba and Sudan, but has been married to a Scotsman for 11 years and first applied for British citizenship in 2001.

Beijing medallists

Christine Ohuruogu: 400m (gold)

Germaine Mason: High jump (silver)

Phillips Idowu: Triple jump (silver)

Tasha Danvers: 400m hurdles (bronze)

“In the end I was quite pleased,” said Van Commenee of the row. “When some people have different agendas, that’s not something I could help.

“In the end it worked out really well because it brought the team together. We had great team bonding, and that was maybe also a result of negative forces around us.”

Van Commenee also insisted that his ongoing dispute with former world triple jump champion Phillips Idowu is “not a problem”.